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REPORT 



ON THE SUBJECT OF 



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Japtg fittest on tonnt g*pstts, 



PRESENTED TO 



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THE BANKS IN NEW-YORK 



Nero-fork: 

W. H. ARTHUR & CO., PRINTERS AND STATIONERS, 



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NO. 39 NASSAU-STREET 

1858. 



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H E P O H T 



ON THE SUBJECT OF 



laying Interest on Current Jrpsits, 



PRESENTED TO 



THE BANKS IN NEW-YORK. 



Mev^Ytf c,. ^ ! 95- ft. 



Nero-fork: 

Hf. H. ARTHUR & CO., PRINTERS AND STATIONERS, 

NO. 39 NASSAU-STREET. 

1858. 
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At a meeting of Officers of the Banks in the City of 
New- York, convened at the rooms of the Clearing House 
Association, at 3 o'clock. P. M., on the 5th March, 1858, 
at which thirty-nine Banks were represented : 

Thos. Tilestson, was chosen Chairman, and J. L. 
Everitt, Secretary. 

The Committee previously appointed to confer with the 
various Banks in this City, relative to the " discontinuance 
of the practice of allowing interest on current deposits" 
presented their Report, of which the annexed is a copy : 

On motion of Moses Taylor, President of the City Bank, 
the Report was unanimously accepted and adopted as ex- 
pressing the sentiments of the meeting, (with but a single 
dissenting voice.) 

The following Resolutions, presented by A. E. Silliman, 
President Merchant's Bank, were then unanimously 
adopted : 

Whereas forty of the forty-six Banks composing the 
New- York Clearing House Association, have already united 
in a written agreement no longer " to allow interest on 



deposits or lalances of any kind, either directly or in- 
directly, provided all the Banks composing such Asso- 
ciation shall concur in said agreement ;" and whereas an 
almost entire unanimity on the subject has thus been ex- 
pressed. 

Resolved, That the great importance of the object pro- 
posed, and the respect which we entertain towards those 
members of the Association who have not yet signed the 
agreement, require that we give them further opportunity 
so to do : and to that end it shall remain open until the 
15th day of March instant, and in the meantime those who 
have already signed the same, do bind themselves in good 
faith to adhere consistently to the spirit of said agree- 
ment. 

Resolved, That under the immediate pendency of this 
matter, it is the sense of this meeting that no member of 
this Association who has subscribed to said agreement can, 
without the violation of good faith and honorable dealing, 
and no member who has not signed will, under the cir- 
cumstances of the case, endeavor to attract, or consent to 
receive, an account coming from any other member of this 
Association, by a promise, to allow interest on deposits 
either directly or indirectly. 

On motion of J. Punnett, Cashier of the Bank of Ame- 
rica, the following Resolution was unanimously adopted : 

Resolved, That a Commitee of three be appointed by the 
Chair to wait upon the Banks who have not signed the 
agreement, with a copy thereof, and urgently and respect- 



fully request that they will reconsider the question, and 
unite with the other Banks in signing: the same. 

The following gentlemen were appointed that Com- 
mittee, viz. : 

Jas. Punnett, of the Bank of America. 

Jas. Gtallatjn, of the National Bank. 

¥m. F. Havemeyer, of the Bank of North America. 

After some discussion following the passage of the ahove, 
Mr. Punnett proposed a further resolution, viz. : 

Whereas, the experience of the past year has shown 
that the aggregate specie reserve of the Banks of this city, 
has at times been smaller than was consistent, with that 
caution and prudence which should at all times be observed 
by the Banking Institutions of this city : Therefore, 

Resolved, That a Committee of five Bank officers be 
appointed to consider the measure of each Bank holding 
at all times not less than a certain fixed per-centage of 
coin to its liabilities, and to report to the adjourned meet- 
ing on the 15th instant.. 



a 



The Chair appointed as that Committee. 

A. E. SillimaNj of Merchants' Bank. 

F. Deming, of the Union Bank. 

"W. J. Lane, of the Fulton Bank. 

H. L. Jaques, of the Metropolitan Bank. 

John A. Stevens, of the Bank of Commerce. 



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On motion, adjourned to meet at the same place on 
Monday the 15th instant, at 3 o'clock P. M. 

J. L. EVERITT, 

Secretary. 



EEPORT 



AT a meeting of several Bank Officers, called We- 
ther a few weeks since, to consult upon the practice 
which has generally prevailed among our City Banks, 
of allowing interest on Deposits, the undersigned were 
appointed a Committee to confer with all the Banks of 
this city connected with the Clearing House, and invite 
them to unite in a written agreement, to discontinue 
the practice. 

The Committee, in the first place, called the attention of 
every Bank to the subject by a printed notice, requesting 
their views as to the expediency of abolishing the prac- 
tice. When a large number had responded favorably, 
your Committee prepared and presented to each Bank, for 
signature, the following agreement, viz. : 

" The Banks in the City of New ■- York, composing the 
Clearing House Association, do hereby agree noi to allow 
interest on Deposits or Balances of any kind, either di- 
rectly or indirectly, provided all the Banks composing 
such Association shall concur in this agreement. This 
obligation may be annulled only by a vote of two-thirds of 
the Banks hereunto subscribing, at a meeting specially 
convened for that purpose, in pursuance of a written 
notice. 



8 



i ' And they further agree, that they will not hereafter 
vote for the admission of any Bank to the Neiv-York 
Clearing House Association, until such Bank shall have 
become bound by this agreement" 

Forty of the forty-six Banks, which form the Clearing 
House Association, have signed this agreement.* 

Such a majority, both in respect to numbers and rela- 
tive importance, certainly entitles their united opinion to 
the most considerate regard. The Committee desire at 
this time to state briefly some of the reasons which have 
actuated them and others in their movement on this sub- 
ject. 

They believe that the custom of allowing interest on 
current deposits, is unsound in principle, unsafe in practice, 
and that it operates injuriously, both upon the Banks 
themselves and upon the commercial community. 

Because : 

1. Such deposits represent that portion of the floating 
capital of the country which is held temporarily in reserve 
from productive investment, waiting to be employed by its 
owners, as prudence and opportunity shall dictate. 

* Of the remaining six : 

One has expressed its entire concurrence in the action of the major- 
ity, and its willingness to sign, if required, for unanimity. 

One has not had opportunity fairly to present the subject to -its 
Board. 

One has expressed its assent, with a slight modification. 

Leaving the minority substantially but three. 



They indicate to some extent the measure of discretion 
in the financial operations of the country, and serve to mark 
the bounds within which it has been deemed wise to limit 
commercial transactions. Such deposits bear the same re- 
lation to the business of country Banks that specie does 
to our city Banks, and are not legitimately the subject of 
profit or interest to their owners in the one case more than 
in the other. They both constitute, from the nature of 
the case, the amount of capital on hand, necessarily idle 
for the moment, and therefore not legitimately the subject 
of direct profits. All effort, therefore, to derive interest 
from such deposits, may be considered as an overworking 
of capital to its peril ; and implies a permission on the part 
of its owners, that the very reserve which constitutes their 
credit and safety, and which they themselves have deemed 
it prudent to withhold from use, may be placed in jeopardy 
by others. It is clear, also, that if the principle be correct, of 
deriving direct profits from reserve floating capital, and if 
it were carried to its logical result, there would be no re- 
serve power whatever. The whole financial system of the 
country would be expanded to its utmost limit, and be 
subjected momentarily to destruction. 

As such deposits constitute the credit and stability of the 
country at large, its conservative power for sudden con- 
tingencies, they should be considered an inviolable trust, 
free from all risk, and consequently from direct profits. 
Those, therefore, who insist upon receiving interest on 
such reserve capital, so far relinquish the idea of holding 
it in reserve ; but it becomes at once a special risk, and 
they, therefore, so far depart from the line of safety. 

2 



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2. Were there no extraneous influences brought to bear 
upon them, it is certain that this reserve fund, at com- 
mand of country Banks, would naturally be divided, 
mainly, into two kinds, viz : specie in their vaults, and 
deposits in New- York, for the purposes of exchange ; and 
that there would consequently be scattered throughout the 
interior, a multiplicity of substantial resources for supplying 
the drain from our commercial centres, and affording a 
more secure basis for the financial operations of the country 

Now, no one can deny, that the payment of interest on 
deposits in New- York, necessarily tends to increase the 
one portion of the reserve referred to, at the expense 
of the other ; and from the fact that deposits in New 
York are equally available to those who command them 
in any portion of the land, they have come to be regarded 
as equivalent to, and have nearly superseded the use of 
specie, as a conservative resource. So that the practice of 
paying interest on deposits in New- York, is operating con- 
tinually as a process of exhaustion of the specie strength 
of the country. 

Nor can it be said that the pernicious influence which 
thus operates to impoverish the interior, ceases its work 
here. The same cause which unnaturally draws the 
specie to the city, continues of necessity to effect its 
expulsion hence, and compels its exportation. 

o. No Bank, in the opinion of your Committee, can 
allow interest on deposits payable on demand, without 
danger alike to itself and to the public. 



11 



The profit is more nominal than actual — apparent 
than real. Take, for example, the case of a Bank 
paying four per cent, interest (the rate which custom has 
established,) on hank or hankers' halances, to the amount of 
one million of dollars, and allow of this, say 20 per cent., 
to strengthen the specie reserve, and the following result 
would be shown : 

Interest paid on am't of deposit, $1,000,000, is $40,000 
Deduct 20 per cent, for reserved specie, 200,000 



$800,000 

Interest on the above $800,000, at 7 per cent., 56,000 



Leaves - - - - - - $16,000 

On the other hand, suppose a Bank has de- 
posits ivithout interest to the am't of $300,000 
Deduct reserve for specie, - - 60,000 



$240,000 
On which interest at 7 per cent., is - - - $16,800 

This result is attained without allowing for increased 
loss on the larger amount discounted, or for additional 
clerk hire, and other expenses, which more than double 
the amount of business necessarily involves. Were these 
considerations and the losses incident to the larger vol- 
ume of business and risks allowed for, a sum even less 
than $250,000, without interest, would be shown to be 
equal to a deposit of $1,000,000, drawing 4 per cent, 
interest, 



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It is clear, therefore, that whatever profit is derived from 
business of this character, must of necessity be made by- 
placing the largest possible proportion of such deposits on 
interest, or, in other words, by encroaching, in disregard of 
the highest prudential considerations, upon the amount 
which it is everywhere acknowledged should be retained for 
specie reserve. A Bank having committed this first error 
of paying interest on its deposits, is therefore compelled, by 
the necessities of its position, to take the second false step, 
and expaod its operations beyond all prudent bounds. 

And it may be truly stated that, were the Banks in this 
city arranged in the order of their actual profits and pros- 
perity for the last four years, the majority of those above 
the average would largely consist of those who have not, 
as a custom, allowed interest on deposits. 

4. Your Committee also insist that Banks are, properly, 
lenders of capital, and not borrowers, and that it is not one 
of their legitimate functions to disturb the natural current 
of trade by borrowing at one price, to lend at a higher. 
Such transactions constitute speculation in money, and 
stimulate a tendency in the community, which is danger- 
ous to all, and which ultimately re-acts on the Banks 
themselves with destructive power. From the nature of 
their organization, they should be conservative. They are 
intentionally restricted in their operations within prescribed 
limits, which mark the bounds that -long experience has 
fixed as commercially safe to themselves and to the com- 
munity ; and they cannot afford, for an apparent profit, to 
foster a principle which, in its final issue, will return in- 
jury for injury with accumulated force. 



13 



Banks are designed to "become permanent institutions, 
and, therefore, have the highest motives to regard every in- 
fluence which they exert upon the financial operations of 
the community, whose commercial character alone gives 
such institutions all their stability and life. 

Banks in this city have also a common interest and can- 
not he isolated. The discredit or weakness of one, operates 
to the prejudice and injury of all, and therefore it cannot 
he safely conceded that any member has perfect freedom 
to carry into practice those principles of business which are 
generally acknowledged as inherently pernicious, or in- 
jurious to the whole. The experience of the last year has 
strikingly demonstrated the fact of mutual dependence, 
and we may remind some, that the practice of paying in- 
terest on deposits, was confessedly a prime cause, in more 
than one case, of recent embarrassment. Besides — a certain 
amount of specie in this city is indispensable to the safety 
of the commercial community, and to the existence of the 
Banks. Now, having established an equitable principle 
upon which that amount should be based, it is neither safe 
to itself, nor even honorable towards the others, that any 
Bank should embody in its practice a principle of business 
which prevents it from carrying its relative proportion of 
this specie reserve. The practical assumption, that be- 
cause others are more constitutionally conservative, or 
possess a higher sense of their obligations to society, and 
that therefore, their fears will compel them to provide 
the amount required for the common safety, cannot be too 
strongly condemned. The known fact, that such a posi- 
tion may be effectually assumed, ought, in the opinion of 



14 



your Committee, to induce every member of this Associa- 
tion cheerfully to acquiesce in an agreement which at 
once removes the temptation and necessity of a depart- 
ure from sound principles. No considerations of profit, in 
special cases, can for a moment compare with the benefits 
which every member would derive from the comfort and 
pleasure, and the profit also, of doing business free from 
the existence of this radical evil. 

5. In reply to the objection that a discontinuance of 
interest would divert capital to other cities, your Committee 
would remark : 

That if the Banks in other cities do not, as we believe 
they would, accept the testimony of our experience, we 
can well afford to give them opportunity to learn from 
their own; confident that they will, sooner or later, reach 
the same result. 

If the payment of interest on deposits serves to attract 
capital unnaturally to this city, it is plain that it must pro- 
duce unsteadiness in business, and thus operate unfavora- 
bly both upon the Banks and the community, inasmuch as 
that capital which flows out of its natural channel, must, 
in the nature of things, suddenly return again, and can 
only be held with great uncertainty as to its re-payment. 
It is in fact sure to be withdrawn at the very moment 
least convenient for the Banks to pay. All such forced 
deposits operate as a source of annoyance to the public, 
by promoting a feverish money market and fluctuating va- 
lues. The necessity for holding them at instant command, 
and at the same time of keeping it employed at remunera- 



15 



ting prices, has given rise to the system of " loans on call" 
which constitutes another evil, the legitimate outgrowth of 
the payment of interest on deposits, and which it is be- 
lieved is universally regarded as obnoxious. In fact, the 
Banks, having borrowed money "on call, with interest," 
are compelled to loan in the same manner ; and thus the 
system is diffused throughout the entire community, caus- 
ing the unnecessary rise and fall of Stocks, the inflation or 
contraction of our money market, and aggravates the 
multiplied evils, both financial and moral, of the Stock 
Exchange. The Banks thus become instruments of 
evil, to direct capital into the destructive channels of 
speculation, to which it would not naturally flow, because 
they have borrowed money which cannot profitably be used 
to sustain the legitimate commerce of the country. 

But your Committee believe that the danger of diverting 
any considerable amount of substantial deposits from our 
Banks is greatly over-estimated, because this city has 
become the financial centre of the country at large, and 
must continue to be the main depository of its surplus 
funds, without such factitious inducements. The well- 
known fact that a deposit in New- York is as valuable as 
specie, in any portion of the United States, has secured 
the legitimate surplus deposits to this city, as the result 
of an inevitable law of trade. Nothing, therefore, but 
unhealthy competition among our Banks, has led to the 
payment of interest, aud such competition is a gratuitous 
and self-inflicted injury, imposed on the Banking system 
by its own members. The proposed agreement to abolish 
the practice, amounts, then, to nothing more or less, than a 



16 



unanimous resolve to cease from destructive warfare on 
each other. 

6. It is worthy of considerate attention, as directly 
bearing upon our subject, that by the rapid improvements 
made in travel and intercourse, this country and the com- 
mercial world, are daily becoming more and more a unit 
in their operations and influences, and thafc financial 
changes are everywhere becoming more sudden, and 
simultaneous. The experience of the last year has strik- 
ingly proved this, and it must daily become still more 
apparent as these improvements advance. 

For the same reason the transitions of floating capital 
from point to point, are daily becoming more rapid and 
certain. The whole tendency of these improvements is also 
towards the centralization of commerce and capital, at 
such leading points as London and New- York. 

Formerly, it was safe to assume that stagnation of busi- 
ness and release of capital, would occur in one locality, 
while there was activity in another, so that an average 
amount of deposits could be relied upon as permanent in 
New- York. But as the world's intelligence and conse- 
quent activity in commercial operations are everywhere 
simultaneous, and the financial current is more rapid and 
extensive, the focal points require a larger comparative 
reserve to meet contingencies of business, as they increase 
in power and magnitude. 

As an illustration of this truth, and of the transient 
oharacter of these deposits, it may not be amiss to remind 



17 



the officers of our City Banks, that during the week ol 
financial excitement in this city in October last, the ex- 
aggerated reports of which were carried with the speed of 
lightning to every part of the land, this new medium of 
communication with equal rapidity filled our Banks with 
imperative orders for the immediate return of their de- 
posits, in specie. 

The necessity for holding a larger proportionate amount 
of specie therefore precludes the possibility of paying 
interest on deposits, without a continually increasing 
hazard. For the same reason, any unsound principles 
or pernicious practices in the monetary institutions of 
New- York, are not confined in their influences within 
their own walls, nor even in the city or country which 
permit them,but they enter at once, as elements, into the 
subtle atmosphere of trade, and tend, sooner or later, to pro- 
duce those violent commercial revulsions which for the last 
year have so universally prevailed. The responsibility of 
greatly retarding, if not of preventing the recurrence of such 
calamities,is thus continually bearing more directly upon our 
City Banks. They are, therefore, bound by every considera- 
tion of self-interest and humanity, to ponder every measure 
proposed for the common good, with views and aims reach- 
ing beyond the merely temporary advantage supposed to be 
derived by any particular institution. 

7. The example of Banks in Great Britain has been 
cited to show the correctness of the principle of paying 
interest. But so far as your Committee are aware, the 
practice of allowing interest by Joint Stock Banks, (only 
instituted in 1834,) differs widely from the system which 
prevails with us. They discriminate between a current 



18 



and an interest account, not allowing interest on the former. 
Since the developments in Liverpool and Glasgow during the 
recent crisis, of the tendency to wild and unwarrantable 
hanking in their Institutions, it would hardly he safe to take 
Great Britain as a perfect model for our future financial 
operations, although we are glad to he instructed by 
the true exponents of sound principles in any country. 
Besides, the Banks there, other than the Bank of England, 
are not the point of last resort, whence the whole nation is 
to be supplied with coin. Their Banks bear about the 
same relation to the Bank of England as our Country 
Banks do to those of this City. It may well be doubted 
whether a better system than that created in this State, 
under the free Banking Law of 1838, and the several acts 
amendatory thereof, exists either in this country or in 
England. But the Bank of England, in which the specie 
strength of the country is mainly concentrated, has never 
allowed interest on deposits. 

It is also instructive to remark, that in a recent dis- 
cussion in Parliament, on the bill to legalize the suspen- 
sion of the Bank Charter Act, the very practice of pay- 
ing interest on deposits, even in the modified form there 
allowed by Joint Stock Banks, was severely censured by 
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, as a principal cause of the 
financial embarrassments in Great Britain. 

The very fact also, that the Banks in New- York contain, 
to a greater degree than any other the concentrated deposits 
of the nation, and in that respect, as the ultimate resort for 
specie reserve, bear the same relation to this country, as the 
Bank of England does to the United Kingdom, and that in 



19 



its long career, that Bank has never adopted the practice; 
might well be adduced to confirm the opinion which our 
own experience has taught us. The fact also, that in our 
united body, we occupy that important relative position in 
this nation, renders it the more necessary that now in a 
time of tranquillity, with the memory of the evils of divi- 
ded views, which prevailed during the recent crisis, clearly 
before us, we should unite in establishing such principles 
of action as shall protect ourselves and the public, as far 
as may be, against the recurrence of similar misfortunes. 

The moral as well as financial responsibility of the 
Managers of our Banks is thus daily enlarging, and both 
duty and interest require us to yield something of what 
may seem temporarily advantageous to any specific in- 
terest, if we can thereby unite in establishing such simple 
and fundamental principles, as will make us a conservative 
rather than a destructive power in the nation, and prevent 
the degrading competition which has hitherto tended to- 
distract our councils. 

It is also evident that no just parallel can be drawn be- 
tween a new country like our own, where capital is great- 
ly disproportioned to the material necessities and commer- 
cial activity of the nation, and those of older European' 
countries, where it comparatively abounds. Here (and the 
disparity becomes still more evident as we recede from the 
Atlantic coast, to the far interior from whence much of 
our Bank deposits is derived,) there can hardly be said to 
exist a reserve of capital, in any just sense as it is under- 
stood in Europe ; certainly, none which can be retained 
in any reliable average amount, by any rate of interest 



20 



which even the most adventurous of our City Banks has 
ever allowed. Besides this — the well known characteristics 
of our nation for enterprise and adventure, and the value 
of money, and the multiplied and multiplying demands 
for its investment, ever prevent a reserve of capital on 
deposit in New- York, excepting such as the necessities of 
trade imperatively demand, and such therefore, as must of 
necessity pass through our Banks, whether interest on them 
be allowed or not. 

8. Interest has been hitherto allowed mainly on ac- 
counts from abroad, which are the least valuable portion 
of a Bank's deposits, because, 

They fluctuate most and are least reliable at the ac- 
tive period of the year. 

They come when we want them least and go when 
needed most. 

They are attended with more labor in correspondence 
and more risks from the incidents of business, 
such as endorsing and guaranteeing endorsements, 
and from forgeries and accidents of every kind. 

If, therefore, the principle be correct of allowing such in- 
terest, it has always been unequally applied, and other de- 
positors are entitled to rights which they have not re- 
ceived. 

Banks should occupy high moral ground, and cannot 
discriminate with their dealers when the conditions are equal 
without degrading their institutions and their profession. 



21 



For the same reason, your Committee must insist, that the 
objection which is made to uniting with us, on the part of 
any Bank, " that it has hut few accounts to which interest 
is allowed," is not sufficient to justify its position ; for 
if they are right with the few, it has less sacrifice to 
make, and is wrong with the many from whom interest 
is withheld. 

Those Banks only are really consistent who have either 
paid no interest at all, or have made it a rule of general 
application, under equal conditions of value. 

The Committee desire hut to refer to the further ob- 
jection, that the agreement, if made, will not be faithfully 
kept, and to say, in reply, that they are unwilling to be- 
lieve that any Bank officer who has deliberately signed 
this agreement, especially with the concurrence of his 
Board, has done so with any other than an honorable 
intent, or entertains a serious doubt of the good faith of 
others. But if it were so, the Clearing House Association 
has created a community of interest among our Banks, 
limited in numbers, and possessing means of general and 
special information with regard to the transactions of its 
respective institutions, which give it an influence in this 
regard, and constitute it a moral tribunal for offences 
against the common good, which no member of the As- 
sociation would more than once venture to defy. Surely 
no advantage which could accrue to a Gentleman j n 
official relations, however weak his moral sense, could be 
sufficient to tempt him to incur the odium of public ex- 
posure before his professional friends. And if it were pos- 
sible to believe that such a character existed in a place of 



22 

honorable trust, the public and private benefits derived 
from his exposure and expulsion, may well repay the effort 
which we make for higher objects. 

Having thus endeavored to show, that the practice of 
the payment of interest on deposits by our City Banks is : 

1. Inherently unsound ; 

2. That it tends to weaken the legitimate commerce 

of the country, and to disturb the regularity of 
the business of the city ; 

3. That no Bank can safely and profitably practice it ; 

4. That it tends to interfere with the efficiency and 

stability of our Banks, and with the harmony of 
their intercourse with each other ; 

'5. That its discontinuance will not divert any sub- 
stantial deposits from this city ; 

6. That the reasons for its discontinuance are daily 

increasing ; 

7. That it has, under like conditions, no fair precedent 

in older countries ; 

8. That, as it exists here, it has been unjustly applied ; 

Tour Committee, in conclusion, have only to repeat their 
firm convictions, that this agreement, if consummated, will 
promote the highest public benefit, and ensure the greater 
prosperity and stability of the Banks in this city ; and that 



23 



no simple measure can be adopted of a public or legislative 
character, that will so effectually secure the good of the 
country at large, without the least admixture of evil. 
They therefore, on behalf of the very large majority of their 
associates who agree with them in these views, confidently 
appeal to the good sense of the minority, with this weight 
of opinion against their position, and leave with them the 
serious responsibility of defeating a measure which is 
deemed so important and vital to the interest of the com- 
mercial and financial community. 



New-York, March 4, 1858. 



Wu. A. Booth, ^ 
John E. "Williams, 
B. W. Dunham, 
Parker Handy, 







LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



027 331 496 9 



£& 



